Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Growing Up





























I just wanted to post some cute photos of Lennah. She is growing so fast and is losing her baby look. She looks like a little toddler now.







Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Sad News for the Adoption Community


Keith and I began our adoption journey several years ago. When we first researched we looked at America World Adoptions and was drawn to their China program. Steven Curtis Chapman was involved in this agency and was the main reason I was so drawn to adoption because of the video I viewed on his families personal experience. Unfortunately, we were too young for China and found our way to Vietnam but I am a fan of his music and a strong supporter of what he has down for the adoption community with his foundation Shaohannah's Hope. Sadly, he has adopted three girls from China and the youngest girl Maria was hit by a car today and passed away. This is truly a loss for such a wonderful family. Please keep them in your prayers. I cannot imagine the pain they are feeling but hopefully God will provide them with the comfort they need in this sad time in their lives.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A Little Lift for Spirits

I just received three new photos of Delylah from our agency. Our girl is growing and getting more and more cute every time I see her. She has hit the 12 pound mark. I just hope she doesn't grow too fast and out grow the clothes we have for her. We have a lot of clothes from Lennah that are in great condition and bought Delylah several new outfits because every little girl needs something old and something new. This definately helped me feel better today after not getting the best news yesterday.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Good News Bad News

So it appeared that the agency made a mistake and Delylah's abandonment period was up on Saturday May17th. We were so excited because we would have just had to wait for the Women's ministry to release her paperwork and we could have filed for our court date and brought home our baby soon. Well, this is not happening as we thought we are still waiting on approval from our government which normally takes 90 days and we are only at half that so our agency called the local USCIS office today to try to get this pushed through quicker. Well, that does not appear to be going to happen. The person in charge is out of town for a week and a half and the person currently working the cases can't promise anything. She told our agency to call back around June 10th or so. This news is putting a damper on things because we are concerned that we may not make the court closing. We are just praying that something comes through.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Mother' Day















Yesterday I was blessed with a wonderful Mother's Day. First I got lots of flowers. Even my parents got me flowers for my first Mother's Day with Lennah home and Keith bought me flowers. Saturday, my parents watched Lennah so Keith and I had a date night (Japanese Steakhouse and movie). Hopefully, we are not too terrible of parents but she did have an ear infection and have a bronchiole infection and we did not want to turn down our first real night out. Obviously, we would not have left her with anyone but my parents in this situation. Yesterday, we had Lennah's baby dedication as well. What a wonderful day to dedicate your baby to God. He was the one who blessed us with such a beautiful little girl so we need to give him all the thanks.

Keith also got me a beautiful engraved photo album from the girl's. I know Delylah isn't home yet but she is still our daughter. We had a great dinner and just a wonderful day of being pampered. I am sure this is the first of many to come. Last year it was sad because I was a mother but Lennah was thousands of miles away. This year Lennah is home but our other daughter is thousands of miles away.

Well, we are down to only two weeks left until Delylah's abandonment period is up. This means that once this period is up, the orphanage will apply to take over custody this could take any where from one to four weeks. From there they will apply for a court date for her to become ours. So hopefully they will schedule a court date for mid July and we should travel mid August. I just hope everything goes as planned.
I hope all of you out there had a wonderful Mother's Day those who are already moms and moms in waiting.


Here are some recent photos and some of mother's day

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Fingerprints Done

Yesterday Keith and I had our fingerprints done to complete our I-600A application. I guess when you go in the middle of the week it becomes a quick process. Of course I had to miss work and we did request a Saturday appointment but they quickly disregarded that request. I am becoming anxious because Delylah's abandonment period is up in 19 days. We are just praying that our paperwork comes through so we can beat the court closing. Even though Ethiopia is now allowing children to be free for adoption 60 days after they are abandoned it is taking about another month to get clearance from the MOWA. So we should accoding to my calculations have a court date around the end of July and travel the end of August.
We also have not heard a lot of news about Delylah recently. With the power outages in Ethiopia our agency is having a really hard time getting in touch with their in country staff.
Hopefully, we can touch base with more families traveling to her orphanage so we can get some updates and photos from them.